E 183 

.8 

.63 V8 


Copy 2 





,V 0 ©*•* 0 v .<y 6 o»s 



*: ^ :«fe: ^ :afer- <b^ * 

* , ^ *^§f®V S a * VwlifcK 0 *° * ^7/>ar* k* 

/ v^V V^V V^> 

^6 A)’ *’*"* ^ V <v * ♦ * ** V N ** * 

^ <£ »!((vVa o ^ ^ *V3fef. V ,** /aVa *> v* / 

va* *^E^* %.^y o 


4' X* 


o 

d 



> <.'•t?T 5 'g* ''»..• a * <+•***' 0 * v <& •:.* 

* tSxvMY^.* Vx „ C ♦ &(\T/Z2?L m O A * t*Sv\vW^# V* (*, ♦ flK/7% : S ^ \j> 

*°v *^6* .«il^ *a 


• * ^ 


> 

,- A o„ V 
*♦* .. ^ *••■ 



»p •»j. v^arar; ^5 ^ 

^ sfuD 1 *’s -K *. 

V. »,.,• ^ o, . 

o. 


> V' .*!^Lv <^s A 0 * 


^ & * 
va v • 


<5>V O 

J? ^ 

Cr 'o. , • A 



A * l 6 ^> v c\ .0* » 

• \ *'mif/h\ % <? ♦vfljV- \ & ’ 

' f r ?m&m' **? :^M: +<? 

v>. .siea^?. c,^ : 

* 4? V. d 

* V *, • 




> *y r 

'•> • t 



* A V ^ - 

* ^ ** * 


S 0 0 * ° 4 ^ 

*b^ >* 0 «’ v 


*K», ^ 

,° s~m£* c 


Odd 



* A <“. -• 

,-i* ■** 

•*o «' <s^11iev" ^i. 


« .v C \'* 

• - 
: -X^ '- 

* 4/ *^A 

y <> ^ •«< ’ «t> * ^ '’Odd* A 



* *♦*,... *?►.'•••• 


A" V *• ’• V^ * 

A° ."iV-. ^ V .LV-% C> 

Tf '^^m° * 

‘%ggf: /\ \ 

• ***. ♦o,"* f *j^r-\'“’ o* 6 •“*.'’♦o’*“‘ 4 !^.•••.%* 

’* V^ .V^. V .d 0 4^>. y ,*•" :• 




* A V -a : 

♦ <F %■ • 






., ,<)» ..... *> V %v .•*•. V“' T “’'^ 0 ° ... 'V.**'-''’ y 1 ,. 

Sdjtfc \., **&?' \S * **' *' 

, ^ % ^llfjlv* <^\ '’MiCv j^\u t 

^ <* '.di^ o 'odd* A <? 4 v t f77* .g^* *o. *"o • 

^ ^ # ®1S <J». r,v 



i-tr . 


‘ v ‘‘^% \ ^ . 

; o e 6 

• v *\ *' 

* _ •>^U^VNSSi » ^ & *?v « 

a °o ^ 

A ^ • • • A° * o ' A • - v «. 

, V % -^ V ^ v> A 0^ 0 

:£&&'.\f : 

^ ^> %y ^ 

> 'Odd'* A 4 ^f?A ’o. *» # * * * A ^ '♦ 























4 

Serial Publications of the Thursday Club 
No. 5 


The Relations of the People 
of the United States to 
the English and 
the Germans 

; 

William Yocke 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations 
and cultivate peace and harmony with all. 

George Washington- 


PRESS OF 

Geo. E. Cole & Co. 
CmcAGO 



E / $ 3 
. % 
§zV% 


The Thursday Club 

consisting of leading members of the Ger¬ 
mania Club of Chicago, meets once a month 
at the Germania Club parlors to discuss sub¬ 
jects of importance to the public at large. 
When the views of the Club are ascertained 
one of its members is charged with the prepa¬ 
ration of a paper upon the subject discussed, 
to be printed and circulated. Four papers 
have heretofore appeared in print. The Club 
presents herewith its fifth paper of the first 
series on the relations of the people of our 
country to the English and the Germans, 
written by its member Mr. William Vocke. 


r 


THE RELATIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE 
UNITED STATES TO THE ENGLISH 
AND THE GERMANS. 


Our war with Spain has been the subject of much acrimonious 
discussion in many of our newspapers against several of the lead¬ 
ing nations and governments of Europe, chiefly against Germany. 
Extraordinary times like these are always apt to arouse popular 
prejudices, and designing knaves never fail in such a crisis as 
ours to endeavor to inflame the passions of the people, that they 
may best promote their own selfish interests. The American 
people, ranking among the most enlightened on earth, 
have always been distinguished by a keen sense of justice 
and fair play. Yet nations, as well as individuals, be 
they ever so cautious, cannot help being misled, when 
they are surrounded by circumstances which prevent a fair 
and impartial investigation of the conduct of others, concerning 
which they should be advised that injustice may be avoided. For 
a long time the press of this country, with rare exceptions, was 
constantly filled with expressions of cordial sentiments towards 
the German people and its government, for it was not forgotten 
that from that source we obtained during our civil war substan¬ 
tial aid and warm encouragement, while England and other 
European powers waited with eagerness for the moment when 
the slave power of the Southern States should be firmly estab¬ 
lished upon this continent and the disruption of the Union 
accomplished. During the last few years the tone of our press 
in this respect has undergone a remarkable change, and the good 
will of our people has been turned into other channels. It is 
well for us to stop and consider the causes: 

We derive our news relating to European affairs mainly from 
England; indeed, it may be safely claimed that nine-tenths of all 

i 


European matter which is not copied bodily from English news¬ 
papers, but is cabled and written for publication in the press of 
this country, comes from London, and since there is no direct 
cable line between Berlin and our country the correspondents of 
the American news agencies at that place send their matter to 
London, where, to all appearances, it is, as a rule, handled to suit 
the purposes of the English before it is forwarded to us. The 
relations between the Germans and the English have for several 
years past been strained, and this has been the reason why the 
numerous English writers employed by the daily press of this 
country have been so unfriendly and uncharitable towards the 
Germans that at times it has appeared as if all the mendacious 
scribblers in the whole kingdom, moved by one common impulse, 
had been gathered together for the sole purpose of bringing 
about a positive and lasting estrangement between our country 
and Germany. The policy of the German government, as well as 
the conduct of the German people and their relations towards us 
and other nations, have been the subject of persistent misrepre¬ 
sentations and falsehoods. Actual facts have been constantly 
perverted, and stories have been invented and spread among our 
American readers of which only the wickedest scandal-bearers 
could be guilty. Many of these falsehoods find their way from 
time to time into the editorial columns of a number of our dailies, 
where they are treated as positive truths, and these papers do 
not hesitate at times to exhibit towards Germany the same vile 
spirit which characterizes the source from which the scandals 
flow. When the war broke out we were gravely assured that the 
government, the press and the people of Germany were bitterly 
hostile towards us and that the government was endeavoring to 
get up a combination of powers to interfere in favor of Spain. 
When this lie was properly nailed our people were constantly 
assured that but for the friendly attitude of England the con¬ 
tinental powers, with Germany in the lead, would have inter¬ 
fered, and that hence we owed England a large debt of gratitude. 
It need hardly be stated that these assumptions never had any 
more substantial a basis than the unwarranted assertions of the 
corrupt English newsmongers. The fact that at the very begin¬ 
ning of our contest England issued a formal declaration of 
neutrality, which some of the continental powers did not do, 
because their past conduct required no particular assurance of 
good faith, was treated by a large part of the press as evidence 


2 


that the former was sincerely friendly, while all the others would 
bear watching. Our people should not forget that at the out¬ 
break of our civil war, the government of England was the very 
first that issued a similar proclamation, and how shamefully that 
government as well as its people violated the pledge of neutrality 
during that most trying period of our country’s history. At that 
time England, with Napoleon III. at its side, was all powerful, 
while Germany was politically weak and distracted. England’s 
attempts to impose her attitude upon Germany then were unsuc¬ 
cessful ; it is not very likely, therefore, that, since Germany has 
become united and strong, such efforts would be of any avail 
now, when beyond the Anglomaniacs in this country, she is with¬ 
out a friend in the world and almost without a voice in the 
European councils. 

At the beginning of the present war, the German emperor was 
reported to have said he “would never permit the Yankees to 
seize Cuba. ” The emperor himself denied it. Our embassador 
at Berlin was said to have been slighted at Court, and Mr. White 
himself showed this to have been a base fiction. Scarcely had 
the victory of Commodore Dewey in Manila bay become fully 
known to the public when it was seriously asserted that “grasp¬ 
ing Germany’’ was casting covetous glances at the Philippines 
and was threatening to interfere with our conquests, which “lib¬ 
eral and unselfish England’ ’ was generously offering to help us 
prevent. This base fabrication turns up again every now and 
then to scare the timid. A few apparently well-directed shots 
from a battery at a Cuban port gave rise to the falsehood that the 
battery was manned with German gunners. They were looked 
for and were found not to be there. Then came the lie that gun¬ 
ners from Germany were serving the forts at Cadiz, but upon 
inspection not one could be traced at that place. Prince Bis¬ 
marck was made to have said that the war was the result of 
persistent provocations on the part of our people; the Cologne 
Gazette, the Hamburg News, and other reputable journals nailed 
this lie. On other occasions this same great statesman was said 
to have indulged in most unfriendly remarks about our govern¬ 
ment ; this, too, proved to be false. Meaningless sentences from 
the German papers have been introduced with definite assurances 
that the whole press of Germany “continued to be most hostile,’’ 
and while certain utterances from the lips of Lord Wolseley, 
the commander of the English army, and from other English- 


3 


men, concerning the untried character of our raw volunteers, are 
treated as most friendly criticism, similar expressions from Ger¬ 
man military authorities, intended in no more unfriendly a spirit, 
are set up to show deep hostility. The German consul at Manila 
was falsely said to have tried to interfere with our blockade; he 
has himself refuted it. The great gun manufacturer, Krupp, it 
was alleged, had shipped a large number of cannon to Spain to 
be used in her fortified places and to have smuggled them through 
the German and French custom-houses as kitchen furniture. 
The story was as false as all the others. 

The German government has from the beginning of our war 
given most unequivocal assurances of its good faith, but this has 
not deterred the scandalmongers from maintaining that “the 
Kaiser is an arbitrary despot who may commit a rash act at any 
time by attacking Admiral Dewey.” The Kaiser has been a 
great bugaboo to them for some time, and they have held him up 
before the American public as a most dangerous person. But 
they may say what they please; so far he has done nothing to 
scare any reasonable man. There is not a cabinet in Europe that 
has at any time been given the slightest cause to complain of 
undue interference on his part with its affairs; he has disturbed 
the peace of the world nowhere, and he will not interfere in our 
war. Although the scandalmongers delight in calling him “the 
war lord,” from all appearances he is rather pleased in cultiva¬ 
ting the arts of peace among his people, and in his endeavors to 
promote their welfare by the extension of their commerce and 
industries, he has in his ten years’ reign been eminently success¬ 
ful. This is just exactly what worries the English and why they 
want our people to help them hate the man, for which, however, 
there is no good reason, because he has been rather friendly to us 
than otherwise. Only five years ago he inspired his people to send 
to the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago the best and rich¬ 
est exhibits of which any foreign nation could boast, and when 
the world was shocked by the appalling news of the sinking of the 
Maine in Havana harbor he was the first of all the European 
rulers who sent his heartfelt condolence to our government. For 
these and other reasons we should let the English take care of 
their own grudges against this monarch 

While the English scandalmongers continue to assure us that 
the press and the people of Germany and other countries are all 
inveterately hostile to us, they insist that the press and the people 

4 


of their own country, fully appreciating that they are flesh of our 
flesh and bone of our bone, are our only, our warmest and sincer- 
est well-wishers. The newsmongers hardly give us any account 
of the strong undercurrent of English sentiment which manifests 
itself in numberless communications published in the English 
dailies and bitterly averse to our cause. The English, it is reli¬ 
ably reported, have, ever since the war broke out, been gathering 
large sums of money to aid the Spaniards; the aristocracy of 
England contributing very liberally, the Duke of Wellington and 
Lady Clanwilliam having each paid the sum of five hundred 
dollars. To overcome this manifestation of English sympathy 
with Spain it is cabled here falsely from Berlin that the German 
people have already gotten up a purse of twenty-million marks 
for Spain. The New York Staats Zeitung, the best informed 
paper on German affairs in this country, says that if there are 
any such collections made in Germany at all they do not amount 
to twenty-three hundred marks, and that all the contributions 
made in the whole country come alone from Spaniards living in 
Germany, while not a penny has been paid by a German. The 
sum of twenty-three hundred marks is a little over five hundred 
dollars, and is just one-half of the amount contributed for the 
Spanish cause by two English persons alone. It may be added 
here that the fabrication concerning German contributions to the 
Spanish cause, like many others too numerous to mention, was 
cabled by the Berlin agent of the Associated Press, which claims 
to be a respectable news agency. This same individual, finding 
it no longer congenial openly to misrepresent the attitude of the 
German government, told us with grave mien only a few weeks 
ago, that “98 per cent of the German press and the German 
people still persist in ventilating their spleen against the govern¬ 
ment and people of America. ” A week later he cabled that “the 
(German) government scrupulously avoids expressing its views 
on the subject (of our war) and a few of the German newspapers 
persist in their attitude of little short of open hostility towards 
the United States;” but, while he omits to tell us in that connec. 
tion what the attitude of the many now is—and our people are 
certainly more interested to know this than what the few think— 
he still claims that “there is no material change in the feeling in 
Germany, ’ ’ which he has always insisted was one of deep hos. 
tility to our country; and to give further color to his many 
falsehoods, he invents an interview with “a member of the 

5 


general staff,” who, he alleges, made most disparaging remarks 
about our army. If this story is not also made out of the 
whole cloth, the American people would thank the individual for 
giving the name of this “member of the general staff,” and if the 
officers in charge of the Associated Press are sincerely desirous of 
securing for our people honest intelligence from Germany as well 
as from all other countries, as they should be, instead of permit¬ 
ting the people to be imposed upon by most preposterous misrep¬ 
resentations, as has been done right along, then they should 
promptly discharge this individual from their employ as unworthy 
of his station. This same individual writes from time to time 
over his own signature in one of the Chicago dailies, and repeats 
his slanders about the sentiments of the Germans by relating 
what he claims to have heard in the cafes and beer saloons of 
Berlin; and from all we read of him this is doubtless the extent 
of his acquaintance with the German people and its government. 

As to the attitude of the German press, those papers that 
actually do maintain an unfriendly tone and are not in the pay 
of the English for so doing, might, in view of the very uncharit¬ 
able treatment which the German people and their government 
have for several years past received at the hands of many of our 
own newspapers, truly say that they are now merely doing unto 
us what we have been doing unto them in a much more violent 
form for some time past. It behooves us, therefore, if we expect 
friendly treatment from others, to temper our own conduct 
towards them. But every observant reader of the German press 
knows that the best and most widely read papers of the empire 
are in sincere sympathy with our people and our cause, and that 
this is being systematically suppressed by the English news¬ 
mongers. Let us therefore examine the causes that prompt them 
to persist in their attempts to poison the minds of our people 
against Germany: 

Since the establishment of the German empire the progress 
which its people have made in enlarging their commerce and 
industries and in increasing their general welfare have challenged 
the admiration of the world. The goods “Made in Germany” 
are everywhere in favor; the English have been driven out of 
the market in many places, not only in foreign countries, but also 
in their own colonies and in their own kingdom. Alarmed at 
this phenomenal success, and carefully examining the causes, a 
few of the best English publicists, Ernest Edwin Williams and 

6 


others, are forced to admit that it is alone due to the superior 
intelligence and sturdier character of the German people. This 
causes the English much anxiety, and in their sordid greed they 
stoop to a systematic course of shameless vilification and slander. 
One of*our American authors says that “one of the evils of 
cowardice is that it tends to falsehood—fear is the mother of 
lies,” and it is a trite axiom that the practice of calumny is a 
sure sign of a wicked heart. In their desperate efforts, therefore, 
to stop the Germans from further encroaching upon the sphere 
of the English industrials and capitalists, to whom they owe their 
bread and butter, these scandalmongers seek to fill other nations, 
particularly our American people, with dislike of the Germans, 
in order that the advantage of our markets may not be lost to the 
English. This is precisely what crops out at times in their own 
journals, and it is the same unspeakably vile conduct which only 
a generation ago this same vermin exhibited towards our own 
people when, at the outbreak of the civil war, the injury to the 
English cotton trade and the further fact that at that very time 
the Northern States of the Union were starting to make gigantic 
strides in the development of vast industries, thereby threatening 
to become powerful competitors of the English, they arrayed 
themselves on the side of our enemies and became implacably 
hostile, dangerous and vicious. And as a warning to our people 
that they may determine whether the present loud protestations 
of friendship from English lips, coupled as they constantly are 
with foul denunciations of others, should be treated as sincere or 
not, we deem it proper and just to make a few brief references 
here to that period of our history. 

It is a notorious fact that during our civil war England did all 
in her power to effect our ruin. In the English navy yards rebel 
pirate ships, the Alabama, the Florida, the Georgia and others, 
were not only built, but also fully armed, manned and equipped 
for the destruction of our commerce on the high seas, while in 
many of the English cities recruiting offices for the Confederates 
were openly maintained without let or hindrance from the govern¬ 
ment. The English rendered the rebel cause aid and comfort in 
a thousand other ways; they took the Confederate bonds by the 
millions and turned them over again to the Southern people for 
their cotton; they furnished the enemies of our government arms, 
ammunition and provisions and conducted an extensive and profit¬ 
able smuggling trade for that purpose; on their own soil as well 

7 


as in Canada they permitted the emissaries of the Confederate 
States to gather and plot for tne overthrow of our government, 
and in some instances their own officially accredited consuls in 
our country, in their blind zeal to help the rebel cause, became 
so forgetful of their duties as to lay themselves open by their 
vicious conduct to the well-grounded suspicion of acting as spies 
for [the Southern States, so that our State Department found 
itself under the necessity of revoking their exequaturs and send¬ 
ing them beyond our lines. Thus the English government and 
people, by their base treachery, seriously protracted the war and 
rendered it infinitely bloodier and more costly to us than it other¬ 
wise would have been. Hence it has been truly said that during 
the four years of unparalleled bloodshed the gloomiest hours spent 
by the immortal men at the helm of our government were those 
which they had to devote to the unceasing efforts to overcome 
the acts of our cruel English foe, “the confederate of the Con¬ 
federates.” As late as the 20th of June, 1864, our Secretary of 
State, Mr. Seward, wrote to his minister, Mr. Adams, in London 
as follows: 

“/perceive that it is at last confessed by that press (the English'), 
“ with entire unanimity , that the sympathies and good wishes of the 
“nation are with the insurgents. They (the English') hope , without 
‘‘ encouragement, for the failure of the American Union. That 
“ illusive hope they will not surrender. Nevertheless, they cannot 
“admit, even to themselves, that the hope which is so precious to 
“them arises out of ungenerous motives.” 

Still later Mr. Adams wrote that it was confidently hoped in 
England that, as the English expressed it, “ The great snake 
“(meaning our country) would be cut in halves and perhaps after- 
“wards into smaller pieces, so that it would never afterwards be 
“ dangerous .” Da?igerous, how? By our increased prosperity and 
the growth of our industries under a united gover?iment , precisely 
as Germany has become dangerous to the English at the present time. 

Seeking now, in courting our favors, to palliate these shocking 
crimes committed against our people only a generation ago, when 
we had no quarrel with them, the English tell us glibly that it 
was all due to defects in their neutrality laws which they have 
since made haste to remove. It is within the inherent powers of 
every state to prevent any and all violations of neutrality on the 
part of its citizens without any express enactments, but their 
government never made any honest attempt to do this, except 


that in a few isolated cases, as the result of the energetic protests 
from our minister, Mr. Adams, in London, a few arrests were 
made and prosecutions instituted, but after a farcical hearing the 
accused, as a rule, were promptly acquitted by a judiciary that 
loved justice less and hated our people more, while in three or 
four other instances in which, on account of the notorious charac¬ 
ter of the offense, the defendants could not help but plead guilty, 
the court, with the consent of the prosecution for the government, 
as the records show, permitted them, notwithstanding the plea, 
to go unwhipt of justice. At the same time a number of poor 
Irishmen, belonging as they do to a race that has, in consequence 
of English oppression, sent several millions of brave and loyal- 
hearted people to our shores, having tried to enlist as seamen on 
the Kearsarge, the vessel that destroyed the Alabama, a Confed¬ 
erate pirate manned by English sailors and armed with English 
guns, were arrested and long kept in ’confinement in English 
prisons to prevent them from carrying out their friendly purpose. 

As in the case of Germany now, so in our case during the civil 
war, the English press was unscrupulous in the highest degree 
in abusing and slandering our cause and our people. Our majes¬ 
tic leaders were constantly maligned, our soldiers stigmatized as 
hirelings, our victories made to appear to have been defeats, the 
cause of the insurgents exalted and our downfall positively pre¬ 
dicted, while the “rebel subsidized news companies located at 
London,” as one of our diplomatic agents in Europe in one of his 
messages to the State Department called the press bureaus of 
that city, assiduously spread their false and malicious reports all 
over the continent to weaken as much as possible the sympathies 
which were there extended to our cause. But this is not all. 
These vile calumniators attacked our people in its tenderest 
spots; they maligned and defamed its best traits; in order to 
make it appear that we were a heartless and cruel) nation they 
circulated the unspeakable falsehood that we denied the Confed¬ 
erate prisoners in our Northern prison camps proper food and 
clothing; that we afforded them no protection against the inclem¬ 
encies of the Northern weather; that in other respects we treated 
them cruelly, and that humanity should be appealed to in order 
to relieve their suffering. Upon this infamous pretext they pro¬ 
ceeded to make large collections from the moneys they had 
filched from the Southern people by driving sharp bargains in 
securing their cotton, until the sum they had thus obtained 

9 


reached the enormous total of 17,000 pounds. This was entrust¬ 
ed to a Lord Wharncliffe, who applied to our minister in London 
for leave to distribute the moneys among “the poor suffering 
Southern prisoners at the North.” The matter was referred to 
our Secretary of State, and here is the indignant answer of the 
peerless Seward to his minister, Mr. Adams, concerning this 
most infamous demand: 

“Department of State, Washington, Dec. 5, 1864. 

“Sir: I have received your dispatch of the 18th of November 
“(No. 817), together with the papers therein mentioned, namely 
“a copy of a letter which was addressed to you on the 12th of 
“November last by Lord Wharncliffe, and a copy of your answer 
“to that letter. 

“Your proceeding in the matter is approved. You will now 
“inform Lord Wharncliffe that permission for an agent of the com- 
“mittee described by him to visit the insurgents detained in the 
“military prisons of the United States and to distribute among 
“them seventeen thousand pounds of British gold is disallowed. 

% 

“That correspondence will necessarily become public. On 
“reading it the American people will be well aware that while the 
“United States have ample means for the support of prisoners, as 
“well as for every other exigency of the war in which they are 
“engaged, the insurgents who have blindly rushed into that con¬ 
dition are suffering no privations that appeal for relief to charity 
“either at home or abroad. 

“The American people will be likely also to reflect that the 
“sum thus insidiously tendered in the name of humanity co?istitutes 
“ no large portion of the profits which its contributors may be justly 
“supposed to have derived from the insurgents by exchanging with 
''them arms and munitions of war for the coveted productions of 
“immoral and enervating slave labor . Nor will any portion of the 
“ American people be disposed to regard the sum thus ostentatiously 
“ offered for the relief of captured insurgents as a too generous 
“equivalent for the devastation and desolation which a civil war , 
“promoted and protracted by British subjects, has spread through¬ 
-out states which before were eminently prosperous and happy. 

“ Finally , in view of this last officious intervention in our domestic 
“affairs , the American people can hardly fail to recall the warning 
“of the Father of our Country , directed against two great and inti- 


10 


'*mately connected puplic dangers, namely, sectional faction and 
1 foreign intrigue. I do not think that the insurgents have become 
debased , although they have sadly wandered from the ways of 
“loyalty and patriotism. I think that, in common with all our 
“ countrymen, they will rejoice in being saved by their considerate 
“and loyal government from the grave insult which Lord Wharn- 
“cliffe and his associates, in their zeal for the overthrow of the 
“ United States, have prepared for the victims of this unnecessary, 
“unnatural and hopeless rebellion. 

“WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 

‘ ‘ Secretary of State. ” 

The foregoing brief review of the perfidy of the English 
against our people may serve as sufficient proof to bear out our 
assertion that calumny and defamation, employed to serve the 
greed of money and power, and so degrading to the human heart, 
have been a distorting mark of the English character. Some of 
their own best men say so. Thus the pure-minded Addison, more 
than 180 years ago, said about the vile slanderers that infested 
the English people in his day, that there was nothing so scan¬ 
dalous and detestable in the eyes of all good men as defamation, 
and he stigmatized the villains who indulged in this infamous 
practice as “a race of vermin, a scandal to government and a 
reproach to human nature,” writing further: 

‘‘Every one who has in him the sentiments either of a Chris¬ 
tian or a gentleman cannot but be highly offended at this 
“ wicked and ungenerous practice, which is so much in use among us 
“at present that it is become a kind of national crime, and dis- 
“ tinguishes us from all the governments that are about us.” And 
further: “Should a foreigner * * * form to himself a notion 

“of the greatest men of all sides in the British nation, who are 
“now living, from the characters which are given them in some 
“other of these abominable writings which are daily published 
“among us, what a nation of monsters must we appear!” 

Verily, since the days of Addison the national crime of which 
he speaks, and which has been dwelt upon by other English 
writers, has increased to an alarming extent. In saying this we 
set down naught in anger; we challenge no resentment and have 
no desire to disturb the friendly feelings which are now cherished 
here towards England; but it is a duty we owe to the American 
people, as good citizens, to prevent with all our might the arous¬ 
ing of race hatred which is sought to be brought about by foreign 


ii 


intrigue with the wicked purpose, not only to prejudice us against 
Germany and to sow the seeds of dissension among our own 
people, among whom millions from that country have found 
peaceful and happy homes, but also to lead us into a dangerous 
policy in our relations with foreign powers. We therefore have 
no apology to offer for referring to facts which those seem to 
have forgotten who in our country are lending assistance to the 
constant circulation of English falsehoods against a people from 
whom at the time when we most needed friends we received most 
valuable assistance, as has always been generously recognized by 
our federal authorities. As early as December, 1861, when the 
German empire was not yet established and Prussia was the lead¬ 
ing power in Germany, Mr. Judd, our Minister at Berlin, wrote: 

“There is no doubt of the friendly feelings of the Prussian 
“government towards the government of the United States and its 
“desire that the rebellion should be subdued." 

These sentiments were dictated by the traditional policy of 
Prussia towards our government inaugurated by Frederick the 
Great, for outside of Paris our struggling young Colonies had no 
warmer friend in all Europe than he was. 

Concerning our difference with England anent the Trent 
affair, Mr. Seward wrote to Mr. Judd in January, 1862: 

“Your suggestions to Count Bernstorff (Prussian Minister of 
“Foreign Affairs) concerning the difficulties between the United 
“States and Great Britain were by no means improper. * * * 

“Moreover, we deem it fortunate that they were made, because 
“they elicited the expressions of friendly interest on the part of 
“ the government of Prussia towards the United States. We reckon 
“always constantly on this friendship. It is a moral element of 
“great value." 

On December 1, 1862, Mr. Seward wrote to our Minister at 
* ‘ Berlin: ‘ l It is a pleasure to renew the acknowledgments which have 
“been heretofore made of the friendly and loyal disposition towards 
“our country which has been constantly manifested by the King of 
“Prussia ' 

On May 16, 1863, he wrote: 

“You will not hesitate to express assurances of the constan 
“good will of the United States towards the King and people (of 
“Prussia), who have dealt with us with good faith and great 
“friendship during the severe trials through which we have been 
“passing." 


12 


In February, 1864, Mr. Judd wrote: "The belief in the final 
“suppression of the rebellion and the re-establishment of the author- 
il ity of our government over the entire territory of the Union is now 
14 almost universal throughout Germany ." 

On June 17, 1864, Mr. Seward wrote concerning Baron von 
Gerolt, the Prussian Minister at Washington: “During all the 
vicissitudes of our affairs, while he (Baron von Gerolt) has faith¬ 
fully advocated and defended the interests of his country, he has 
“at the same time been a firm, frank and hopeful friend of this 
“government and country . ” 

On the 27th of April, 1865, when the war was over, all the 
members of the Prussian House of Deputies, over 260 in number, 
united in an address to our minister, Mr. Judd, saying to him, 
among other things, as follows: 

“Sir: Living among us, you are a witness of the heart-felt 
“sympathy which this people have ever preserved for the people of 
44 the United States during this long and severe conflict . You are 
“aware that Germany has looked with pride and joy on the thou- 
“sands of her sons who in this struggle have placed themselves on 
44 the side of law and right. You have seen with what joy the vie - 
4 4 tories of the Unio?i have been hailed and how confident our faith 
“ in the final triumph of the great cause of the restoration of the 
44 Union in all its greatness has ever been , even in the midst of 
44 adversity. ” 

That these noble words, coming as they did from a very con¬ 
servative and monarchial body, were not mere empty phrases is 
abundantly shown by the many substantial benefits conferred 
upon our people by the Germans during the civil war. The 
governments in Germany never recognized the belligerency of 
the insurgents, as England and others did, and hence there was 
nothing in the way of their permitting thousands of their best 
sons to come over here and take service in the armies of the 
Union, and wherever these men stood they proved themselves to 
be loyal and brave fighters against disunion and slavery. 

In 1864 three formidable pirate vessels had been built at 
Bordeaux by the shipbuilders Arman & Co. for the rebel States 
to continue the war on our commerce, which the pirates built and 
equipped in England had begun and prosecuted with such terrible 
effect Before the vessels could be launched, however, Prussia 
bought them all up, and our diplomatic agent at Berlin writes to 
the State Department concerning this fact: “Now that the truth 

13 


of their destination has become known, French and English 
sympathizers with rebel pirates are greatly chagrined. ’" 

While the English, with their immense wealth, had hardly a 
dollar for our government bonds, at all money centers in Germany 
there were ready markets for them at prices ranging at times 
higher than those at which they were quoted in New York. 
Thus Mr. Judd writes on one occasion: 

“ United States bonds here and elsewhere in Germany are quite 
“ buoyant . They are now quoted at 73 per cent. Permanent invest - 
il ments in them continue to be made quite largely , although the 
“speculative mania which had seized upon them and had crowded 
“out all other funds has perceptibly abated.” 

Later he writes: 

“ The demand for United States bonds is still very active, so 
“much so that at this time they are from 2 to 3 per cent higher 
“than in New York . They are quoted at 77$@77i.” 

When the war was over the German people, according to 
reliable estimates, held over 500 million dollars of our bonds, 
while those of the Confederate States are not known to have 
found a lodgment on German soil anywhere. These investments 
are a splendid manifestation not only of the friendly disposition 
of the German people towards us, but also of their great good 
sense as prudent merchants and traders. Money, it is rightly 
said, constitutes the sinews of war. It should therefore not be 
forgotten that outside of our own country the essential element of 
warfare was furnished us most liberally by Germany, and the 
fact that the English, who denied us that aid when we were in 
urgent need of it, have since then, in time of peace, obtained large 
interests here by making profitable investments, should not render 
us so ungrateful as to permit them to come here and malign our 
former benefactors. But the sympathy the Germans extended to 
us was by no means prompted by business considerations alone. 
Their whole heart went out towards us, and while innumerable 
packages containing underwear, delicacies, hospital supplies, and 
many other useful articles came to our soldiers in the field from 
Germany through private channels, some of them were shipped 
in large quantities directly to the authorities in Washington. 
Thus the American Consul-General at Frankfurt-on-the-Main 
addressed to Mr. Seward on the 8th of April, 1863, the following 
communication: 

“Sir: I have the honor to enclose to you shipper's receipt for 

14 


“seventy-ninepackages of linen and lint, shipped in the Hamburg 
“steamer Hammonia, Captain Schwensen, consigned to the Hon. E . 
“M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, and care of Austin, 
“Baldwin & Co., New York. This last shipment is for 12,033 Ger- 
“man pounds, and what is equivalent to 13,036 English pounds, and 
“is apart of those articles contributed by the Germans, mostly in my 
“consjdar jurisdiction, for the wounded soldiers in the Union army. 

“The next shipment will be for over fifteen thousand pounds, 
“and will be 7tiade directly to the Secretary of State , unless differ¬ 
ent instructions shall in the meantime be received.” 

“From a letter published in one of the Washington papers I 
“observe that a large quantity of lint and linen will not be needed 
“for the soldiers, but the contributors zvill be satisfied to have it 
“sold and put to any other uses which the surgeon general of the 
“army shall dee 7 n fit and proper." 

“The linen must 7iow be of great vahie in A merica, a7id can be 
“sold for high prices." 

To this communication our noble Secretary of State made 
grateful recognition, as follows: 

“I am directed by the President to acknowledge, in behalf of 
“the American people, a gif t which could 7iot be overvalued , even if 
“it were to be regarded as proceeduig from the simple 7 notives of 
“Christian charity. The contribution comes opportunely to us, 
“however, as a toke7i of the sympathy of our German brethren with 
“the cause of the A7nerican Unio7i, one of whose aspiratio7is it has 
“been, and yet is, to offer an asylu 7 )i to the exile and the oppressed of 
“all 7 iatio 7 is. 

“We think ourselves authorized also to regard the gift as a con- 
“tribution of the Ger7nan people to the cause of impartial freedo77i, 
“which by vieans of this painful civil war has become identified 
“with the cause of the Ai7terican Union. 

“You will make this acknowledgment known to the donors 
“in some manner which will be respectful to the government of 
“the free city of Frankfurt.” 

We insist that a foreign people that exhibited so much feeling 
for our sick and wounded soldiers as to provide them with large 
quantities of hospital stores, and that gave us so many other 
striking proofs of profound sympathy and good will in the hour 
of our country’s greatest danger, should not be permitted now or 
at any time to be defamed in our press at the bidding of its 
enemies, the English. 


15 


But our people are daily told that Germany is so intensely mon¬ 
archical as to hate our free institutions, and this, it is claimed by 
the individual who cables the Associated Press dispatches from 
Berlin, and by others, is one of the first reasons of its alleged 
hostility to our people now. If this assertion were worth a farth¬ 
ing, then the period of our civil war would have been the 
proper time to assert the alleged hatred, first, because the 
integrity of our government, as well as all our free institutions, 
were then trembling in the balance, which is not the case now in 
our war with Spain; and second, because Germany was then more 
intensely monarchical than she is now. Such an inherent antag¬ 
onism between republican and monarchical institutions as some 
of our modern editors profess to find did not exist in the eyes of 
King William and Prince Bismarck when, at the time they held 
France in their grasp, they permitted her, without the slightest 
concern, to establish a republic at their very doors, nor did our 
great historian Motley see it in that light when, in 1863, as our 
minister to Austria, he wrote to our government concerning the 
efforts of the German princes to form a more perfect union for 
the German States, among other things, as follows: 

“It is impossible not to warmly sympathize with the aspirations 
“of those who contemplate so splendid a vision as that of a political 
“union of 4.6 millions of people of one race and language , and occu- 
“pymg so proud a position as Germans have ever occupied in all 
“that we understand by civilization , for Germany is assuredly the 
“mother of modern civilizationT 

“The strength and union of Germany is an advantage for 
“Europe and a bond of peace and progress for the world.” 

“ The world at large has much to gain and little to dread in the 
“increased strength and prosperity of Germany .” 

To this our noble Seward, who neither cherished such an 
unmanly dread of a centralized monarchical government in Ger¬ 
many as certain scribblers now do, replied as follows : 

“Every ejfort to consolidate all the German states under a feder- 
“ation which would promote the common development and progress 
“ of the entire fatherland would be hailed in this country with pro- 
* found satisfaction. ” 

We have said above that since the foundation of the German 
empire the German people have incurred the deadly enmity of 
the English, and, taking advantage of the fact that our people 
speak their language and that our American editors are with but 

16 


few exceptions confined to the reading of English news for infor¬ 
mation concerning Europe, they have been the means of manu¬ 
facturing a sentiment here which is most detrimental to the fair 
fame of our country abroad. We should be no party to the petty 
jealousies which inspire the “nation of shop-keepers” against 
Germany and other countries. When last fall the Germans, for 
the protection of their commerce in the East, managed by peace¬ 
ful negotiations with the Chinese empire to obtain possession of 
a harbor on the Asiatic coast, an advantage which the English 
had only been able to secure as the result of two bloody wars, 
the latter raised the hue and cry that the Germans intended to 
establish barbarous trade restrictions and to shut out all other 
nations from their sphere of power in the Asiatic waters. This 
was assiduously circulated in the newspapers of this country, a 
number of which, professing to believe it, called vehemently upon 
the Federal government to join “liberal England” in prevent¬ 
ing the alleged scheme. There was nothing in the former con¬ 
duct of the German government nor in the genius of the German 
people, who have always been known as prudent traders, that 
justified the silly charge against them, and the fact is that it was 
alone prompted by the sordid selfishness of the English, anxious 
as they were to prevent their successful rivals from gaining a 
political foothold where they had already, as peaceful merchants, 
secured large trade 'interests. The intention to establish trade 
restrictions by keeping out others in the Chinese ocean were 
therefore alone harbored by the English. Nor was this the first 
time they exhibited this contemptible spirit toward Germany. 
In 1861 they did all in their power to prevent the government of 
China from granting certain trade privileges to Prussia by means 
of a treaty of amity and commerce with that country. Their 
present outcry against Germany, therefore, on the score of trade 
restrictions is nothing but the cry of “stop thief,” raised by the 
fleeing robber against his pursuers. The cruelty and rapacity 
with which they threw their wolf-like fangs into the sides of the 
poor Chinese should not be lost sight of. They acquired some 
of their most valuable possessions in China as the result of the 
most infamous war on record, carried on by them, as it was, for 
the base purpose of preventing the madarins from inhibiting the 
debauching and death-dealing traffic in opium, because it was so 
profitable to the English traders. We are told wherever Eng¬ 
land colonizes she civilizes and brings happiness and contentment. 

17 


The truth is that she grants as much liberty as she is obliged to 
do and no more. Her colonists in Canada and Australia enjoy a 
fair measure of autonomy, because they would not remain 
dependencies of England short of it, but in India and elsewhere 
she rules with unprecedented brutality, taking from that one 
country alone over a million and a quarter of dollars each day to 
fatten her big lords and rich industrials, while thousands upon 
thousands of the wretched people of India, with all their pinching 
frugality, die annually of starvation. For centuries England has 
oppressed and outraged the generous and noble-hearted Irish 
people, and while she permits to prevail among the proletariat 
in her large cities the most squalid poverty and misery, at which 
humanity stands aghast, her aristocracy all around those cities 
revel in unheard of wealth and luxury. Let us pause before we 
permit a former enemy, with a most unsavory record, to ingra¬ 
tiate itself into our favors, not only by heaping upon us now ful¬ 
some flatteries, but by maligning others who were our constant 
and sincere friends. Let the newspaper men of our country 
emancipate their minds from the corrupting influences which the 
English have wielded here already too long for the good of our 
people. It is neither prudent nor just that we should allow the 
English, as we have done right along, to tell us what other 
nations are doing and what they think of us; let those nations 
speak for themselves. An adversary never makes an honest 
spokesman. Our people are fair-minded and generous; they are 
at all times anxious that truth and justice shall prevail, and not¬ 
withstanding the imposition tried to be practiced upon them, it 
will be found in the end that they are neither a doting King 
Lear, who turned his kingdom over to an undutiful daughter 
because she was loudest in her professions of filial love, nor his 
prototype, the king of Paphlagonia, who, having cast away a 
noble son at the bidding of a bastard, took the miscreant to his 
bosom, and received from him prompt reward for his misplaced 
kindness by having his eyes put out. The immortal Father of our 
Country solemnly warned his people to be' on their guard against 
foreign intrigue , and this is what he told us our conduct should be 
towards others: 

‘ ‘ Observe good faith and justice towards all nations and cultivate 
“peace and harmony with all Religion and morality enjoin this 
“conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin 
“it? * * *“ 

18 


“ The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred 
<i or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to 
“its animosity or to its affection. Either of which is sufficient to 
lead it astray from its duty and its interest . ” 

We ask no special consideration for the Germans. They are 
strong and manly enough to fight their own battles; but since 
they do not carry their grudges against others over to this soil, 
we should neither permit the English to make our fair land the 
dumping ground for their jealous disposition and ugly quarrels. 
But this is what they have done ever since they began to 
recognize that their perfidious policy has brought upon them the 
wrath of all Europe. They have thus inflicted upon our people 
a grievous injury, because its calm judgment is being clouded, 
the voice of reason has in many places been hushed and harsh 
and unjust prejudices have been aroused. We are aware of the 
corrupting power of English capital in Europe as well as in the 
United States. Let the men who aid and abet in the spreading 
of a dangerous contagion beware that the love of justice which 
has distinguished our people ever since we threw off the cruel 
yoke of England cannot be rooted out, and that their nefarious 
scheme to lure us into an alliance with our hereditary foe, and 
thereby to disgrace the sacred memory of the heroes of the Revo¬ 
lution and of the immortal Lincoln and Seward, by insisting that 
all other nations on earth are our enemies and the English our only 
friends, will suffer a most ignominious defeat We are told 
that the English “are our Anglo-Saxon cousins, ” whose language 
we speak and whose customs we cherish, wherefore we should 
form a closer union with them. Do we not all know that until 
recently they hardly ever recognized us as their “ Anglo-Saxon 
cousins , ’ * that in former times they had nothing but contempt for 
us and that their cruel taunts to which we were then constantly 
exposed were only a degree more offensive than the obsequious¬ 
ness with which they now cringe before us? Only on one 
conspicuous occasion during the civil war did they speak to us as 
their “Anglo-Saxon cousins,” and that was when towards the 
close of the struggle they sent us a public appeal, flamboyantly 
addressed by “The People of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland to the People of the United States of 
America,” and beginning with the touching phrase: “We are 
of the same race, and many of you are our brothers. Can we not, 
therefore, come to you as peacemakers and address you as 


19 


friends?” And then these vile hypocrites had the unspeakable 
insolence to falsify history, and to say to us that there was no 
difference between the attempted secession of the Southern people 
and the breaking away of the American colonies from the mother 
country, and therefore we should let the South go and recognize 
its independence. 

An alliance with England would not only be an unspeakable 
folly, but an unheard of infamy. Where is the nation that has 
ever had an alliance with that pander and has come out of it 
either with profit or with honor? When we were weak and in 
the throes of bloody internal strife, England treated us with 
refined cruelty and treachery; now that we are strong and invin¬ 
cible, she humbly sues for “most cordial relations and an 
alliance, ’ ’ that henceforth she may share in our glory and we in 
her infamy. The proud emblem of our American liberties shall 
not be trailed in the dust by the side of the disgraced Union 
Jack. To the end of time the inspiring words of the poet— 

No refuge could save the hireling and slave— 

From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave; 

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave— 

shall be and remain a living truth, and the best manhood of 
America shall not cease to shield our glorious flag from the con¬ 
taminating contact with the sullied banner of “perfidious” 
Albion. 


20 


U g4 








f % A X \ 

c • * * 4 '7 ’ ’ .1**4 e • * * 4 'T. 4 > ' • 4 ' 

ssro ^d* -mm^' "sA ;<CinHr. 

iP V* 


*«<?* 


r ^ * 


A '■'b o w/mxf * * c> ^ o w$$\W • A y <^ 

V ^ °. <rC^«* $ # «*^8KPv ^ srC^v v X 

o *o * , * yv <\ ♦/TTT* ^ >b, '••*• A <4 

*»**« X> * 0 * * * ^ 0 ^ . *»* 4 , ^o A 6 ° * a 4 , ^ 


< 3 ^'**To* aO" ^ *•"*' °°^. ** *^ 0 ° A v 

c* sy *\ 4 °* v «iVL% c\ *o‘ 

fMX>\ W ; 

> * 4>^ - 

* ^ ^ * 




« *P **+ £ °*' 

* * 7, v°°.. .:v*' ’*Va- *:v* Te •■v° 

*ssS6k*. / 


^ 'V 



^ , 4^ Vj ^ v *> ^ 

» y * 



V *"'•’ 4^ 


- ’-TV.*' 6* ^ 

A ’’o 

.-S*' A"V *«»” 

^ a » vgfef * <&. a •jjjsfek ** ^ * 

O |//^Wvm* • \V^\| j O \T a a 

* <& ^ *Wmz* <y ^ \ 


^* - * * ° av ^ 

S' A? •‘1*®- ^ 

* % A 4 

** A\ -eB? * ^'V ° 





.4 * 4 TVi* , 0 V Ts 
^ , ,0* ^C 


*«: 'w “^SM' ^ ■i' 5 ’ *mw”“, • 

V->V “ kS^-T^? r .k * YsY/7r^SS> ‘ <. 4. - * J X « 

> v #' 

^ *^rT°' A 1 

. . - »<* 4 V - ^ - yT. — 

% ,0' 

: ^ d* 

fl5 ^ 4 , 

■V 4*^«V 4L^ 0„ V -4. . 

^ • « ’ * ^ * • - 0 A' 

v , >xx* x, jy 

^ A - 

. XT > > ^ 

O * & v ’ 0 » * |*Q * 47 ^ 

k ' (I* O 4 < 



4 * * ♦ *^b i v 

■* o j »■ • 

* -o / » 


,, ^7;t ,, A' o, 

.o 4 . • l , _*. ^ 




wV # \“ 

*0™ n 1 * e* 'XJX A t » * * /' ^ Q» « « o A 4 


^ ^ J? ^ ^r ^ v^te/ ^ ^ 

<b> *' * * • * <G^ o# • * * A A Vtv#* 

0 frlf ^ > 0 ^ „ * *• " * * **0 d 6 °* * * **$* rfi * 4 * • * r 

:£mbh+ *b\P 




r* a VA, 
♦***%*• 


v* 


4 ^d* 

/ 7 . 

, XyJmk' \ J . 

+~*v .’M 1 , • 


* • O 


4 > 0 X 4 

; 4 <^ : 

^4 *» ^ ?’^ , .A C ^.***To* , 
„ A «, • 4 j 7 »>^. A * 3 

• #1; ^r./ 

* A% 


^ % •» ♦♦% *j^m* ■#* %> •wmp : j %> 

%s '° • * * A *'••** aO^ 5 ^ ’'o * t « 4 A , 

^ **J*kx!% ^ , 0 ^ %•'!!• ^b. 6 »*s 

^’tW/sd** » <X « <f^AVm'Sb y rjr. V « £f/(l7??2?^ . • A^YvVvU* 

ii^: :£M&t- 


^ . «5 ^ 

* » d w ,□' Ak * A aO 

. 0 ^ V^ .vvi'. \ *■* o f ..... 

v,/ ..kjM'o ♦♦ a« /da^’* \ / /' “ 

^ b • > \r*V ^^* ) * a ^ 5 . *■ \a c,^ * 









































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































